Newbie introduction

[Furious_D]

Hi all,

I've been a bit of an intermittent lurker on here for a while, so thought I should say hi. I've been star gazing only for the last year and a half, originally through a cheap borrowed refractor, and now through a 10 inch dob. I was only looking for an 8 inch, but was offered it with a non matching base for 590 and couldn't say no!

Space finally looks like it should through it. I've only really looked at planets and a few brighter nebulae so far. The base is pretty stiff and terrible but it holds the telescope up, which is what you want.

I've had a busy year and haven't done much over the winter, but I'm looking to start again. I'd like to move my tube to an eq mount and eventually motorise it and do a bit of astrophotography.

I'm a member of the astronomical society of SA but as of yet have been a bad member and not attended anything! I'm going to fix that tomorrow night.

Cheers,
Graham

[BeanerSA (Paul)]

Heading up to The Heights tomorrow,eh? It is a good start, but if you can make the time/effort to get out to Stockport for a members night, or Star Party, then you should. It's well worth it.

Are you getting the monthly bulletin?

[Regulus (Trevor)]

Welcome aboard Graham.
10" Dob is a big scope and truly useful for the deep space nebs and clusters.
If you want to split double stars though, it is a bit bright. If it has the lid that has a 50mm opening in it, use that. It increased the contrast so you can 'split' them (and can help with separating the bands on Jupiter. It's also useful if you want to make a 50mm solar cap out of one of the sheets of solar mylar that can be bought cheap. It's enough aperture for such a bright target.\
It's a nice way to spend the evenings, with a big dob.
Trev

[Furious_D]

Originally Posted by BeanerSA

Heading up to The Heights tomorrow,eh? It is a good start, but if you can make the time/effort to get out to Stockport for a members night, or Star Party, then you should. It's well worth it.

Are you getting the monthly bulletin?

Yeah, heading to the heights. I don't live far from there so it's ideal. Stockport seems doable too, I'll look into it - thanks.

I've been getting the bulletin, but I was finding that by the time I was getting around to reading them the events had all passed! I got married a few months ago and became quite time poor. Time to start reading them again

[Furious_D]

Originally Posted by Regulus

Welcome aboard Graham.
10" Dob is a big scope and truly useful for the deep space nebs and clusters.
If you want to split double stars though, it is a bit bright. If it has the lid that has a 50mm opening in it, use that. It increased the contrast so you can 'split' them (and can help with separating the bands on Jupiter. It's also useful if you want to make a 50mm solar cap out of one of the sheets of solar mylar that can be bought cheap. It's enough aperture for such a bright target.\
It's a nice way to spend the evenings, with a big dob.
Trev

Hi Trev,

It does indeed have the cap - I had no idea what it was for, or that it even came off!

Thanks,
Graham